List of 2012 disasters, Part 1
List of disasters * January 1 - The 2012 Bismarck earthquake occurs at 5.4 magnitude, around 6:57 PM. First recorded earthquake in North Dakota. * January 11 - The 2012 Minneapolis-St. Paul earthquake occurs at 5.8 magnitude, around 4:29 PM. Strongest recorded earthquake in Minnesota. * January 17 - The world learns that the oil reserves in the Middle East are near depletion, causing all nations in the region, as well as western countries to fight over the remaining oil. US and NATO troops also lock down recently discovered oil reserves in central Venezuela. * January 22 - The 2012 Orlando earthquake occurs at 6.2 magnitude, at around 9:05 AM. First earthquake measured in Florida using a modern seismic scale. * February 8 - A magnitude 7.4 earthquake occurs in Nuuk, Greenland, killing over fifteen hundred and injuring thousands in the aftermath. * February 19 - The USGS and other geological institutes across the world begin monitoring a series of harmonic tremors beneath Mount Kilimanjaro, indicating movement of magma beneath the volcano's summit. * February 28 - After a rapid series of strong harmonic tremors, the volcanic island of Surtsey off the coast of Iceland erupts for the first time since 1967. Within a week, the island's size is increased to its original land area that it had in 1967, and grows to be nearly the size of the Hawaiian Island of Kauai by May 17. * March 10 - A 6.7 earthquake occurs in Tikal, Guatemala, the former capital of the Mayan Empire, while Simon Lynch and his brother Peter, son Joseph, and brother Simon are on a tour of the city with several others. The earthquake exposes a large chamber, hidden since after its takeover by the Spanish in 1545. * March 12 - A 6.3 earthquake occurs in Chicago, Illinois, around midnight, killing forty-hundred eighty-six and injuring about a hundred when a small skyscraper under construction collapses in the downtown area. Damage is severe, with the city sustaining twice as much damage as it did in the 1999 earthquake, with surface cracks and moderate to major structural damage to homes across the entire metro area reported. * March 15 to 21 - A Category 4 hurricane forms from a tropical storm in the South Atlantic in 35 hours, and slams ashore in Rio de Janeiro on the 19th, killing over seven thousand in the tidal surge alone, with total damage estimates nearly reaching $27 billion by May 2. * March 30 - For the first time since May 1917, Mount Lassen in California erupts, sending an ash cloud as far as Sacramento, though with ashfall there fortunately only reaches about 1 centimeter. * April 1 - Though initially thought the most elaborate April Fools Joke ever, unconfirmed reports indicate large hydrothermal eruptions of every volcano on the North Island of New Zealand, with several reports also indicating that full eruptions are imminent. * April 7 - Harmonic tremors rock the city of Jackson, Mississippi, causing minor damage when the largest tremor reaches 5.2 magnitude. * May 13 - A 7.0 earthquake occurs in Reno, Nevada, around 8:48 A.M., killing one thousand forty-eight and injuring several hundred when the Silver Legacy Hotel and Casino in downtown Reno collapses, covering the city in a dust cloud for several hours. City Hall, the Reno Events Center, and St. Mary's Regional Hospital also suffer heavy damage. * May 29 - The largest aftershock of the Reno earthquake occurs, rated magnitude 6.3. * June 1 - Around 1:19 AM, a terrorist working for Al-Qaeda detonates a tactical nuclear device on Interstate 70 in Sevier County, Utah, killing forty-four and irradiating over a hundred-square miles of the state. The mushroom cloud is visible from Salt Lake City for slightly over eighteen hours. * June 29 - The 3rd largest earthquake in recorded history occurs, as a 9.7 earthquake nearly destroys the city of Las Vegas. * July 4 - The first underwater supervolcanic eruption in recorded history occurs in the Atlantic Ocean at a point 1.5 thousand miles east of Bermuda, sending superheated water vapor and steam miles into the atmosphere for thousands of miles in all directions, providing fuel for the nearby Tropical Storm Gordon to grow into the largest and most ferocious tropical cyclone in recorded history. * July 5 to 7 - Tropical Storm Gordon strengthens from a tropical storm to a Category 6 hurricane in forty-eight hours, becoming the strongest and largest tropical cyclone ever recorded on Earth. On July 7, it becomes a Category 7 hypercane, the first officially recognized storm of its kind in recorded history. * July 9 - Hypercane Gordon slams ashore in Plymouth, England as a Category 9, with winds topping 300 mph. * July 18 - An 8.2 earthquake strikes Japan, causing severe damage throughout the entire country, especially near the epicenter in Tokyo, where much of the city is completely leveled, and portions of the coastline sink underwater forever, as Tokyo Bay rises nearly 37 feet within hours. * July 24 - The Chicago Seamount, the first in a chain of volcanoes to form in the Great Lakes, erupts northeast of Chicago. * August 3 - The Jackson Volcano, thought to be extinct for nearly six thousand years, erupts beneath the city of Jackson, Mississippi, destroying the state capital. Soon, ashfall is reported in Jacksonville, Tallahassee, New Orleans, Houston, and Nashville. The USGS also reports strong harmonic tremors throughout northeastern Texas and southwesten Arkansas, though fortunately, nothing significant ever comes of this. * August 9 - The 2nd largest earthquake in recorded history occurs, as a 10.2 earthquake occurs along the Cascadia Subduction Zone, creating a 270 foot high tsunami that inundates and destroys several large towns along the US and Canadian West Coasts. * August 11 - A 7.3 magnitude earthquake strikes Cardiff, England, and completely levels the city. It also causes moderate to severe damage in London and Dover as well. * August 16 - In New York City, the 125th Street Fault ruptures, unleashing a 6.3 earthquake on the city, which is quite ill prepared for such an event. Several of the skyscrapers of Battery Park, vulnerable to soil liquefaction, partially collapse, with several of the cables that support the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges failing as well, though the bridges themselves remain intact. * August 17 - A 6.2 earthquake strikes Boston, causing heavy damage to the Prudential Center, the John Hancock Tower, and the Old North Church. * August 22 - The Al-Aydarus Volcano in Aden erupts as a precursor to the Dabbahu earthquake. The eruption kills thousands and injures ten of thousands. Lava bombs, landslides, and pyroclastic flows devastate the city, destroying dozens of container and tanker ships in the harbor as well. * August 30 - Within this day, all of the New England Seamounts erupt, superheating water for the formation of a Category 6 Hurricane Rafael. * September 3 - Owing to far above-average sea surface temperatures worldwide, a tropical depression in the Central Pacific rapidly strengthens into a Category 4 hurricane and tracks toward Oahu. * September 7 - Hurricane Ela makes landfall in southeastern Oahu around 9:08 AM local time, causing billions in damage and killing hundreds across the island. * September 15 - US Army Satellite A-89521 collides with Space Station Prometheus over North America, destroying it completely. No one was killed, as the station was unmanned at the time and afterwards, the collision is deemed a legitimate accident. * September 19 - The Dabbahu Volcano in Northeastern Ethiopia erupts, rupturing the Dabbahu Fissure with an 11.0 earthquake that creates the Ethiopian Sea, as well as the island of Eritrea-Djibouti. The rupture's effects also sink portions of western Yemen and southwestern Saudi Arabia beneath the Red Sea, destroying the Yemenese capital of Sana'a. * September 20 - Under similar conditions to Hurricane Ela's formation, a tropical depression in the Pacific west of Baja California rapidly strengthens into a major hurricane, Vicente. * September 24 - Hurricane Vicente makes landfall in San Francisco as a Category 5 with 175 mph winds, causing nearly $17 billion in damage, and killing over seven hundred. * September 27 - Mounts Kenya and Kilimanjaro erupt for the first time in thousands of years, spreading ash all across Uganda and Kenya, with airspace over both countries restricted by emergency resolutions from the UN. * October 16 - Mount Fuji erupts, unleashing pyroclastic flows and lava bombs over an immediate 20 mile area, with ash and sulfur spreading across all of Honshu, grounding any remaining flights out of Japan for good. * October 30 - A swarm of earthquakes occur under the Point Reyes area in California northwest of San Francisco, the last being a 7.4 that ruptures the local area of the San Andreas Fault, creating a fracture along the fault that splits the peninsula off the mainland, creating Point Reyes Island, located nearly 30 miles west of its former position. * November 7 - A magma uplift is detected beneath Reno after the occurance of yet another powerful earthquake swarm and a volcanic lighting storm over the city center, forcing a full evacuation. Mount Reno is formed from the succeeding eruption, which destroys the city forever. * November 14 - A 9.4 earthquake occurs in the Indian Ocean, unleashing another tsunami, similar in power to, but slightly larger than the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, though far less people die than in 2004, due to the placement of the Indian Ocean Tsumani Warning System (IOTWS) in 2006. * November 23 - The volcano that formed Bermuda, thought to be extinct for thousands of years, erupts catastrophically, killing the 72,000 people who inhabit the island. The eruption forces a redirect of transatlantic flights and shipping, severely disrupting commerce and travel for nearly a week. * November 25 - An 8.9 earthquake occurs in Hilo, Hawaii, killing thousands in the quake itself, and the succeeding 75 foot tsunami which nearly erases the city from existence. * December 12 - Valles Caldera in New Mexico begins showing signs of unrest after thousands of years of slumber. An eruption nearly equivalent to the 2002 eruption of the Long Valley Caldera occurs around 11:47 PM, killing thousands in the resulting ash cloud and pyroclastic flow, which also disrupts major commercial air routes. Ashfall by about an inch reaches as far as Santa Fe and Phoenix, and about a centimeter is reported as far away as Oklahoma City and Dallas-Ft. Worth. * December 14 - A 7.7 earthquake occurs in Franklin County, Ohio, causing major destruction throughout the region, killing over fifty five thousand, and resulting in the near-complete destruction of the state capital of Columbus. * December 17 - After a series of large earthquake swarms, more than 60% of the volcanoes in West Antarctica erupt, destabilizing nearly half of the West Antarctic ice sheet, and causing a global sea level rise of 5 meters, thereby forcing a major relocation of coastal populations all across the planet. * December 20 to 21 - In the race to stop the crustal shift, NASA activates dormant Project SIMON nanites aboard the Shuttle Yorktown, in an attempt to block the excess radiation from Sol. The plan succeeds in preventing a major shift of the crust, with it only moving by 214.4 miles to the northwest. Category:2012 disasters Category:2012 earthquakes Category:Mercury Rising Continuity